The analytical solution of Laplace's equation with a symmetric potential profile has been obtained for investigating the breakdown criteria between the sustaining electrodes in the coplanar AC-type plasma display panel. Using this solution, Paschen's Law has been analyzed along the various discharge paths in the panel space using various sustaining electrode gap distances.

The planar luminaries with the external electrode fluorescent lamps arrayed on a flat panel for the LCD-backlight have been improved by driving with the square pulses from a single switching inverter. With the square pulses of the driving frequency about 30 kHz, the high efficiency up to 40-70 lm/W and high brightness up to 30,000 cd/m 2 along with the luminance uniformity 90% in the 15-inch, 18-inch, 21-inch diagonal panels, respectively, could be obtained.

Space and time resolved discharge images from an alternating-current plasma display panel have been observed by a highspeed single-frame camera to investigate the electron temperatures. The plasma propagation speed on the cathode was measured to be 0.9 mm/s and 1.3 mm/s, respectively, and that on the anode was measured to be 1.8 mm/s and 2.7 mm/s, respectively, at driving frequencies of 50 kHz and 100 kHz. This finding indicates that the electron mobility on the anode is approximately two times the ion mobility on the cathode. Particularly, the electron temperatures in alternating-current plasma display panels (AC-PDP) were found to be 1.2 eV and 2.5 eV at driving frequencies of 50 kHz and 100 kHz, respectively, in this experiment, which are in good agreement with those obtained by a micro-Langmuir probe and the laser Thomson scattering method.

Observations suggest that the discharge striations in a coplanar AC-PDP are related to the ion wall-charge waves generated by the self-sustained perturbations during the force-balancing between the ion and the electron wall charge accumulated on the dielectric layer over the electrodes.

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